Latest news with #BanffCentreforArtsandCreativity
National Observer
17-06-2025
- National Observer
'I had higher expectations': In tourist town of Banff, G7 is felt rather than seen
In her hometown of Banff, Alta., Monica Dominguez's experience of the G7 leaders' summit has been defined by the sound of helicopter blades humming from above. 'You never hear helicopters here,' Dominguez, manager at Magpie & Stump Mexican Restaurant and Bar, said Monday inside the restaurant on Caribou Street. 'When you hear helicopters, it's because it's an emergency." "This is a little bit -- I don't want to say overwhelming -- but it's different.' Though some of the world's most powerful leaders have been just a few mountain passes away in the resort village of Kananaskis since Sunday, locals in Banff say the summit has been a spectacle felt rather than seen. For the past week, aircraft have hovered overhead in preparation for the leaders' arrivals, and police from other cities and towns have roamed the streets. On Monday, small groups of international media were seen broadcasting curbside around the Rocky Mountain tourist town. Just outside the town's main strip, hundreds of reporters, photographers and broadcasters from around the world are being housed at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Shannon Thoren said she had expected more action from the summit. Though she hadn't imagined run-ins with world leaders, she'd hoped to see their plus-ones and staffers wearing badges walk into the Canada House Gallery, a local art gallery where she's assistant director. "I like the chaos," Thoren said in the brightly-lit store Monday as reams of tourists wandered around the community. She said traffic has been normal for mid-June. The previous day was particularly busy, but she said a local half marathon and Father's Day likely accounted for the buzz. "I don't want to say (I was) disappointed, but I had higher expectations of more traffic, and that just wasn't the case," she said of the summit. The only difference is she sees more people distracted by the helicopters flying around town. At the Spirit of Christmas, a store dedicated to the holiday 365 days a year, visitors filed in and out while "Home Alone" played behind the cashier. Store manager Tawny O'Hara hadn't been as curious as to how the G7 gathering would impact the town. "I thought the protests might have been a bit of a pain," said O'Hara. O'Hara said it's been busier in Banff this year compared to years' prior. However, she chalks that up to a favourable exchange rate for Americans travelling to Canada and perhaps greater numbers of Canucks deciding to stay home in response to the trade war initiated by US President Donald Trump. Dominguez agreed that those factors seem to be at play. And she's not complaining: the summer offers a brief window to cash in on tourism spending. And who knows what will happen once the summit wraps on Tuesday and the world leaders are gone. "This town runs on tourism -- it's short and sweet summers," Dominguez said. "You may as well enjoy it while it's here."
Winnipeg Free Press
17-06-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
‘I had higher expectations': In tourist town of Banff, G7 felt rather than seen
BANFF – In her hometown of Banff, Alta., Monica Dominguez's experience of the G7 leaders' summit has been defined by the sound of helicopter blades humming from above. 'You never hear helicopters here,' Dominguez, manager at Magpie & Stump Mexican Restaurant and Bar, said Monday inside the restaurant on Caribou Street. 'When you hear helicopters, it's because it's an emergency.' 'This is a little bit — I don't want to say overwhelming — but it's different.' Though some of the world's most powerful leaders have been just a few mountain passes away in the resort village of Kananaskis since Sunday, locals in Banff say the summit has been a spectacle felt rather than seen. For the past week, aircraft have hovered overhead in preparation for the leaders' arrivals, and police from other cities and towns have roamed the streets. On Monday, small groups of international media were seen broadcasting curbside around the Rocky Mountain tourist town. Just outside the town's main strip, hundreds of reporters, photographers and broadcasters from around the world are being housed at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Shannon Thoren said she had expected more action from the summit. Though she hadn't imagined run-ins with world leaders, she'd hoped to see their plus-ones and staffers wearing badges walk into the Canada House Gallery, a local art gallery where she's assistant director. 'I like the chaos,' Thoren said in the brightly-lit store Monday as reams of tourists wandered around the community. She said traffic has been normal for mid-June. The previous day was particularly busy, but she said a local half marathon and Father's Day likely accounted for the buzz. 'I don't want to say (I was) disappointed, but I had higher expectations of more traffic, and that just wasn't the case,' she said of the summit. The only difference is she sees more people distracted by the helicopters flying around town. At the Spirit of Christmas, a store dedicated to the holiday 365 days a year, visitors filed in and out while 'Home Alone' played behind the cashier. Store manager Tawny O'Hara hadn't been as curious as to how the G7 gathering would impact the town. 'I thought the protests might have been a bit of a pain,' said O'Hara. O'Hara said it's been busier in Banff this year compared to years' prior. However, she chalks that up to a favourable exchange rate for Americans travelling to Canada and perhaps greater numbers of Canucks deciding to stay home in response to the trade war initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump. Dominguez agreed that those factors seem to be at play. And she's not complaining: the summer offers a brief window to cash in on tourism spending. And who knows what will happen once the summit wraps on Tuesday and the world leaders are gone. 'This town runs on tourism — it's short and sweet summers,' Dominguez said. 'You may as well enjoy it while it's here.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2025.
CBC
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Ontario writer Canisia Lubrin wins $208K Carol Shields Prize for Fiction
Canadian writer Canisia Lubrin has won the 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. The $150,000 U.S. ($207,582.64 Cdn) prize recognizes the best fiction book by a woman or non-binary writer from the U.S. and Canada. It is presently the largest international literary prize for women writers. The winner will also receive a five-night residency at the Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland. Lubrin is honoured for her book Code Noir, which was also shortlisted for the 2024 Atwood Gibson Fiction prize. The Code Noir, or the Black Code, was a set of 59 articles decreed by Louis XVI in 1685 which regulated ownership of slaves in all French colonies. In Code Noir, Lubrin reflects on these codes to examine the legacy of enslavement and colonization — and the inherent power of Black resistance. The inherent power of resistance: How Canisia Lubrin's debut novel Code Noir reflects on postcolonial agency Lubrin is a Canadian writer, editor and academic who was born in St. Lucia and currently based in Whitby, Ont. Her debut poetry collection Voodoo Hypothesis was longlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award, the Pat Lowther Award and was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award. Her poetry collection The Dyzgraphxst won the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. It also won the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the 2020 Governor General's Literary Prize for poetry. The 2025 jury was chaired by American writer Diana Abu-Jaber. The other jury members are Canadian authors Tessa McWatt, Kim Fu and Norma Dunning and American author Jeanne Thornton. " Code Noir contains multitudes. Its characters inhabit multi-layered landscapes of the past, present and future, confronting suffering, communion, and metamorphosis. Canisia Lubrin's prose is polyphonic; the stories invite you to immerse yourself in both the real and the speculative, in the intimate and in sweeping moments of history," said the jury. "Riffing on the Napoleonic decree, Lubrin retunes the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and violence. This is a virtuoso collection that breaks new ground in short fiction." The four remaining finalists included Pale Shadows by Canadian novelist Dominique Fortier, translated by Rhonda Mullins, along with American titles All Fours by Miranda July, Liars by Sarah Manguso and River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure. They received $12,500 U.S. ($17,301.28 Cdn). The four finalists and the winner will be invited to participate in a group retreat residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction was created to recognize novels, short story collections, and graphic novels written by women and non-binary authors and published in the U.S. and Canada. Planning for the prize began back in 2012 after Canadian author Susan Swan participated in a discussion of the status of women in writing on a panel that included Kate Mosse, who established the U.K. Women's Prize for Fiction and Australian writer Gail Jones. It was moderated by Shields's daughter Anne Giardini. Looking at statistics generated by arts organizations like VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and Canadian Women in Literary Arts (CWILA), Swan found that women writers were being reviewed in publications far less than their male counterparts. The historical numbers for major literary awards are particularly dismal — only 17 women have won the Nobel Prize in Literature since 1909 and about a third of the winners of Canada's oldest literary prize, the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction, have been women. Shields, the prize's namesake, was one of Canada's best-known writers.
CBC
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Halifax writer Dorian McNamara wins 2025 CBC Short Story Prize for story about trans man on Toronto streetcar
Social Sharing Halifax writer Dorian McNamara has won the 2025 CBC Short Story Prize for his story You (Streetcar at Night). He will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. McNamara's story was published on CBC Books. McNamara will also be interviewed by Mattea Roach on an upcoming episode of Bookends. You can read You (Streetcar at Night) here. If you're interested in other writing competitions, the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize is currently accepting submissions. You can submit an original, unpublished poem or collection of poems from April 1-June 1. Dorian McNamara is a queer transgender writer currently living in Halifax. Originally from Toronto, he graduated with a BA in psychology from Dalhousie University. He is currently working on his first novel as well as publishing the creative newsletter Dear You. This year's winner and finalists were selected by a jury composed of Conor Kerr, Kudakwashe Rutendo and Michael Christie. "From its opening lines, we were captivated by the deft and corporeal imagery of You (Streetcar at Night), with its lush descriptions of travelling via streetcar, and all the rhythm and music that one becomes enmeshed in along the way. But beyond its flowing narrative and lyrical writing, lay the story, and that is what called to us. You (Streetcar at Night) follows a trans man's recollection of his first relationship, the narrative establishing itself as an address to his former partner, taking a novel route through aspects of transition," the jury said in a statement. "Highlighting the nuanced duality of a Before and After, connected through a frank and vulnerable interiority. It is a requiem of sorts, a call to the past, that simultaneously grounds itself in a present of acceptance and true belonging. Where one can look at a stranger on a streetcar and see a whole history in their eyes. This story resoundingly illustrates — at a time when it could not be more needed — that within everyone, outside of all our external features and presentations, is a prevailing interiority and humanity, and that trans people are not a threat. "This story resoundingly illustrates — at a time when it could not be more needed — that within everyone, outside of all our external features and presentations, is a prevailing interiority and humanity, and that trans people are not a threat." You (Streetcar at Night) tells the story of the before and after of a trans person. The protagonist reflects on his first relationship as he and his fellow riders roll through the Toronto streets at night. "Growing up in Toronto, I've always loved the streetcars. When I come home to visit my family, I find I am often on the streetcar. There's always a lot of memories tied to them, but after coming out, I got anxious that people who knew me before would recognize me then. Part of me wanted them to remember me and see me now, but another part of me was afraid of how people I used to know would react," McNamara said. McNamara joins a long list of writers who have won CBC Literary Prizes, such as David Bergen, Michael Ondaatje, Carol Shields and Michael Winter. The CBC Literary Prizes have been recognizing Canadian writers since 1979. To be given the opportunity to share my writing with others and to be understood and to even perhaps have my writing understand others is an incredible gift. "Winning the CBC Short Story Prize is a monumental honour, one that still feels beyond me. Getting the news, I felt all the joy in my body well up in my throat and I did not know whether I was laughing or crying. Writing for me is a practice of trying to understand and often making peace with my inability to do so, be it regarding myself or others," said McNamara. "To be given the opportunity to share my writing with others and to be understood and to even perhaps have my writing understand others is an incredible gift. I am so grateful for being given the chance to further my process and dedicate myself to my practice." The other four finalists are Vincent Anioke of Waterloo, Ont. for Love is the Enemy; Trent Lewin of Waterloo, Ont. for Ghostworlds; Emi Sasagawa of Vancouver for Lessons from a peach and Zeina Sleiman of Edmonton for My Father's Soil. They will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts. The longlist was compiled by a group of qualified editors and writers from across Canada from more than 2,300 submissions. The readers come up with a preliminary list of approximately 100 submissions that are then forwarded to a second reading committee. It is this committee who will decide upon the 30ish entries that comprise the longlist that is forwarded to the jury. The jury selects the shortlist and the eventual winner from the readers' longlisted selections.
CBC
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Canadian writers Chanel Sutherland and Damhnait Monaghan shortlisted for 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize
Canadian writers Chanel Sutherland and Damhnait Monaghan are on the shortlist for the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize annually recognizes the best piece of unpublished short fiction from one of the Commonwealth's 56 member states. The winner is chosen from the five winners of the annual regional competitions in the categories of Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, Caribbean and Pacific. As Canadians, Sutherland and Monaghan are shortlisted in the Canada and Europe regional category. Sutherland is recognized for her story Descend, about a sinking ship of enslaved Africans with powerful stories to tell. Sutherland, who is from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. She won the 2022 CBC Short Story Prize and the CBC Nonfiction Prize in 2021. Her debut short story collection, Layaway Child, will be released in spring 2026 and will include the story that won the CBC Short Story Prize. She lives in Montreal. If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the CBC Poetry Prize is open now until June 1. The winner receives $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and their work will be published on CBC Books. You can learn more here. Monaghan is shortlisted for her story Nualu Nu, about a 1970s schoolgirl who immigrated to Canada from Ireland with her widowed mother. Monaghan is a Canadian writer who spent 25 years living in England and grew up in Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador. She is the author of New Girl in the Little Cove, which won the 2022 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Award for romance. A former teacher and lawyer, her writing has been published in many different publications. The complete list of shortlisted authors for all five regions is available here. They were chosen from 7,920 entries by judges Vilsoni Hereniko, chair, Nsah Mala, Saras Manickam, Anita Sethi, Lisa Allen-Agostini and Apirana Taylor and are published in the online magazine adda. The regional winners will be announced on May 14 and the overall winner will be revealed June 25.
